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About 2 months ago I was driving my 2004 Pontiac Grand Am and I rear-ended a car and had major front-end damage to my car. Some items that were fixed both airbags, right and front rail system, sunroof and a ton of other stuff. The estimate total so far is over $9000 and I everytime they give it back to me I find more problems. They told me they weren't totalling it cause my car was worth $14000 which I don't believe it is. It is never going to be the same and they shouldn't have fixed it anyways. Can I reject my car?
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Dear Tiffany,
That sounds like quite a bit of trauma invloved so you are fortunate that you were not hurt.
Please forgive my delay for two days this weekend in answering you, but I had to take a holiday weekend trip down to Seattle to see my Seahawks beat the Redskins and advance to the NFC Championship Game! Good trip, but sorry for the delay in getting back to you, as I just got home tonight.
You CAN reject your car IF YOU ARE SUPPORTED BY AN AUTO BODY REPAIR EXPERT. You will likely have to pay for this help, so either be prepared to do that or ask the insurance company to pay for an independent opinion of the repairs.
What you need to do is to take the car to a competing shop that is state of the art with accurate measurement devices for straightening the frame.
Also, make a list of the other things that went wrong in the repair. Show those to your expert and have him examine them.
Ask him if he would consider the car properly repaired or not. If not, then get him to write up a report for you. In truth, you will likely have to take very good notes of what he says, make a disc of a Word document and give it to his office people to put on their letterhead.
With that you can go back to the insurance company and make them get the car repaired properly. It is up to them to make this happen, and they may want to use the same body shop as before since it is "come back" work that they will not have to pay for.
But you could try to get the car into the better shop. Find out what kind of devices were used to straighten out your rail system. If a finely calibrated machine, then OK; if it was only a series of floor shackles and a "come along" mechanized pulley system, then tell the adjsuter he needs to find a shop that uses a more advanced system.
Do not be in a big hurry to have your car totaled. Many times people find out the rude truth: the money they will get for totaling the car, less what is owed, will not buy them much of anything unless they are willing to go and incur higher monthly car payments.
Many people, assuming they can get a good solid repair job on their existing car, will find a better deal keeping their present car.
We have information on Dr. Settlement's site on how to handle a totaled car situation, including a scenario for buying back a totaled car and authorizing used and non-OEM parts for repair if they would prefer to keep the existing vehicle. Here is a link to free information on this topic. http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0007.htm
Look about two-thirds the way down for information on the totaled situation.
I trust this information is helpful, and would appreciate your leaving feedback so I know what is helpful to our visitors.
Best Wishes,
Dr. (personal injury) Settlement, J.D.
www.SettlementCentral.Com
Thank you for your information so far. About totalling it... I have gap insurance to cover the rest. The biggest problem is my car is no longer worth what it was before and the fact they can't seem to get it right is even worse. I would trade it in if I could but that is impossible because I am already upside down. This accident was the 28th of November and I have had my car a total of 8 full days since then. I guess I am just frustrated with how State Farm is handling this and I don't really know my options. What do I do next? Who do I talk to at the insurance company?
Thanks
Tiffany
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Hello again, Tiffany,
I can feel your frustration, and it is not uncommon or limited to State Farm. If is any consolation, Dr. Settlement had his own car in the shop for 40 days because they kept finding things that had not appeared. And, like your situation, the eventual bill for repairs crept up so high that they might have totaled it if they knew the amount.
And like your situation, I did have to bring the car back on two occasions because little things were not done right. One of them was a leak, I recall. Anyway, the point is: with a big repair job, it is not uncommon for some items to remain in need of additional work. It is your job to document those and get the insurance company to fix them.
If you cannot get the attention of your adjuster, ask for his supervisor, but be prepared to put things in writing and to document the list of things you feel are not properly repaired.
If you cannot get the attention of the supervisor to help you, then go to Dr. Settlement's Links page and get the contact information for your state insurance commissioner and contact her office. Here is the first link:
http://www.settlementcentral.com/links.php
What I would do first is to get an objective opinion about the quality of the repairs. There is no use talking to the insurance company or anyone else until you do have that opinion.
As I said, if you can handle the cost of review by the third party repair shop, go for it. If not, try to get State Farm to authorize a review with one of the shops that they have authorzed to "write" for them. (That means the shop is approved to bind State Farm with estimates that it writes.)
Now, insofar as getting someone at the insurance company who might pay a third party to examine the car, I would first locate the body shop you want to take it to and make sure that they are authorized to "write" for State Farm.
Review my answer above for tips on what kind of equipment they need to have. Then, with a body shop already approved by State Farm, present your proposal to have them arrange for your car to be examined there.
That is the best route to get your car back in good shape. I do not know that you are entitled to a loss of value award inasmuch as the repairs are supposed to compensate you by restoring your car.
I know it is not fair, but even complete restoration, the fact that a car did have serious damage could impact its value, AND YOU MAY NOT GET A DIME FOR THAT LOSS. I suppose the reason is that making a diminution of value claim is more a matter of proof: it is more difficult to show in cars worth $15,000, but easier to show with cars worth $60,000. You could hire a car appraiser and ask him the extent to which your car has lost value because of the fact it sustained serious damage.
Assuming the car is restored, then you next turn to loss of value. But without an appraiser's opinion, that will come in to play only in very expensive cars: something that is worth over $40,000 at the time of the accident would be a good example. The fact that such a car was in a serious accident will reduce its value by an amount an appraiser can estimate. Hence the owner is entitled to compensation for that diminuation in value.
I trust this information is helpful, and would appreciate your leaving feedback on the form provided so I know what is helpful to our visitors.
Best Wishes Tiffany,
Dr. (personal injury) Settlement, J.D.
www.SettlementCentral.Com
